Apple's new iPad goes on sale in South Korea

Pyo Hyun-Myung (2nd R), president of the Personal Customer Group at KT Corp, explains Apple's new iPad to the first customer in line, at a branch of KT, a Korean distributor of iPhones and iPads, in Seoul, on April 20. The new iPad went on sale in tech-savvy South Korea, about one month after it made its international debut

Hundreds of customers lined up Friday at Apple stores as the new iPad went on sale in tech-savvy South Korea, about one month after it made its international debut.

Four of Apple's stores in Seoul opened early to sell the tablet computer, and there were also queues outside branches in the city of network providers KT and SK Telecom, the two distributors of iPhones and iPads.

First in line at KT was university student Lim Jun-Hong, 21, who slept overnight on the pavement to be the first to get his hands on the tablet.

"Got my new iPad! Hooray!" wrote one Twitter user.

Apple is selling the gadget with WiFi at 620,000 won ($545) to 860,000 won ($755), depending on memory size. The cost is slightly higher for models with both WiFi and 4G.

South Korean users, at least for now, will use 3G instead of 4G. The faster connection speed is currently unavailable locally due to differences in frequencies.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics, Apple's biggest rival worldwide, introduced its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in February last year, only four months after launching the series.

Apple's latest iPad has a more powerful processor and a screen resolution called retina display, which it says is the sharpest ever on a mobile device.

The company said it sold three million over the course of its first weekend on the market last month.

The latest iPad is also going on sale in 10 other countries on Friday and Apple says it plans for the best-selling tablet to be available in more than 50 nations by the end of the month.